hello everyone. i'm kate baldwin. thank you for joining us this hour. moments from now the biden white house will hold its very first coronavirus briefing. as part of its promise to let science lead the way and be more transparent in their efforts to fight the pandemic, the top members of president biden's covid response team will be very soon providing updates and also

taking questions. that includes dr. anthony fauci, the new cdc director dr. richelle walensky and top white house covid official jeff zients. there are very big questions before them this morning. we'll look for those updates. the most pressing really remains, of course, the rollout of the vaccines. when and how more americans will be able to get the shots. on that, president biden made big promises yesterday, announcing the u.s. purchased an additional 200 million doses of the pfizer and moderna vaccines which the administration says will be enough to vaccinate most americans by the end of the summer. more immediately, the white house says, that shipments will be going out to states and increasing by 16% starting next week. that is the good news in the face of the very bad. january is already the deadliest month of the pandemic so far. the virus has killed nearly

80,000 americans since the new year began. it's truly remarkable when you think of the scope of this pandemic and its impact. so as we wait for this very first briefing to kick off, let's start off with john harwood at the white house. what will we be hearing from the biden covid response team today? >> kate, i think the main message is the fact they're having the briefing at all. they made the argument that the trump team elevated politics and other considerations over science. that was pretty obvious at the time during 2020, and we've had it affirmed publicly recently in interviews for people like deborah birx and town any fauci who will be at the briefing today. the argument by the biden team is it's data and science that's going to light the way out of this pd and that, of course, is going to be the acid test for this group, how quickly can they get us out of this pandemic, and

back to normal. this briefing is the beginning of what they hope will be that process. >> absolutely. john, stick with me. i also want to bring in dr. sanjay gupta and cnn's jeff zeleny for a little more on this. the first briefing for the biden team, what are your biggest questions this morning? i remember very well seeing you at some of the very early briefings of the last administration on covid. >> i think john is right, just the symbolism of this alone is important. it's all scientists and people on the task force that are there really running this briefing. it reminds me of, frankly, going back to ebola days or h1n1 days. that's how the country learned about what was happening with those sorts of outbreaks. i think the questions are the ones we've been talking about to some extent. the vaccines, it still strikes me -- we'll hear about the r rollout. it seems there's a certain

amount of the vaccine that's unaccounted for. dr. walensky said this the other day as head of the cdc. these are the most precious commodities on earth right now. how are they not so specifically tracked, issues like that. how do you know, kate, things that have gotten less attention like testing. president biden talked about $50 billion in testing for rapid antigen tests. what is that going the look like? are these going to be in schools, at big office buildings? how is that going to help get our life back to normal even before a full vaccine rollout, and then also masks. these are the less sort of technologically gee whiz things. itches talking to some people last week who have been looking at viral dynamics. if the country wore n95 or equivalent masks in high-risk situations for four weeks, they said we would bring an end to this pandemic. my point is there's a lot to talk about and some things may be far easier and simpler and

quicker than others. >> we should say, also different because of the covid era, we'll be watching this on a live stream. we're essentially waiting for this live stream to kick off in this very moment. we'll bring it to you as soon as it does begin. jeff, joe biden ran on his ability to get control of the virus and also ran on briefings like we're about to see. they're a big part of the promise he made from the campaign trail. what are you expecting from this first briefing? >> we're just a week into the biden administration. one thing he's doing that he can do is shining a light on the coronavirus, shining a light on the pandemic, not shying away from it, really putting science front and center. that is not to be underestimated. the reality is it's the biden administration's challenge an problem. we heard a lot over the last seven days about the varying degrees to which the trump administration had a plan for vaccination rollouts. i think that timeline has expired in terms of looking

backward. the biden administration is aware they must look forward. they're getting more vaccines out. this briefing today is one of the ways they're going to try and at least -- how should we say -- turn the page on truth, actually show what is happening. that's something we didn't hear over the last three months or so, and certainly even more than that. i think first and foremost, just by talking about it, it is a big development. they're going to have to do more than that. in terms of vaccination rollout and things, part of this is, also, to urge lawmakers in congress to pass his covid relief bill. they're showing these problems are very real and they need more money for this vaccination rollout, for testing at schools and other matters. >> john, one of the things that biden said yesterday, when he said by the end of the summer there's going to be enough vaccines for every adult american to get a shot who wants a shot. is he taking a risk? do they think at the white house he's taking a risk by kind of

laying a marker on that? >> it doesn't seem that risky. we knew the administration was in line to acquire these additional vaccines. that had been set up by operation warp speed before. they're executing on that. it's kind of like the goal that joe biden articulated of a million shots a day for 100 days. we had gotten close to a million shots and actually achieved it on one day. it's not all that great of a departure. the real key is the execution. that time pressure to get america back to normal, to get schools open again, to get normal life open again. get restaurants, bars and businesses open again. that pressure is going to be there whether the president articulates a timeline or not, and that's weighing on them. >> that's a good point. sanjay, piggybacking off of this in your reporting, the administration's announcement about these increased shipments

to states starting next week, i was really interested when cnn's kristen holmes has been talking to state health officials. one of them told her, and i thought it was interesting because it crystallizes a question. they say they don't know what the vaccine supply is on sunday. two days later they say they not only have a handle on it, but say they can increase supply is this what we're looking at in terms of these announcements? and it's all good news. i'm not at all trying to take away from that. is it a result, do you know yet, of the biden team doing something differently or a natural ramp-up that was already going to be happening? >> i don't think it's really reflective of them doing anything differently, where you see a lot of these doses coming from are the increased supply from moderna which is the second authorized vaccine. so i think if anything has been

done differently, it's what's the degree of confidence we have that we can say for the next three weeks we can deliver 10 million doses a week. people don't have to be left guessing or left in the lurch if the doses don't show up. i think it was applying that degree of rigor to asking those questions, making sure it was actually going to come through, frankly. but some of this is good timing as well. we knew manufacturing capacity was going to increase. we also found out that pfizer has probably six doses in a file. even if it's not more vaccine overall, it will speed up the process. >> i think this is timing, manufacturing increases and being confident now in what you're saying. >> jeff, noteworthy if we're comparing it with what we have come to know of covid task force briefings, the president will not be part of this briefing.

the vice president not part of this briefing. >> right. they're leaving it to the experts for now. the president has a whole team of coronavirus experts and leaders in the west wing sitting only a few steps from his office handling this. we are told from time to time the president is going to weigh in directly on these briefings. he'll be monitoring them. look, he has a variety of things to do. he is delegating this, if you will, to the experts. we rarely saw the president in the previous administration at these briefings. the vice president, of course, was in charge of them. occasionally early on, and we saw the president leading the way as the spokesman for this. we saw what happened with that. he's not a scientist, didn't follow the science. the reality is the new president, president biden is leaving it to the experts. that doesn't mean he's not shining a light on it. in fact, he is shining a light on it. he's doing other things today as this task force is getting under way. so i think that certainly is a

sign, again, he's focusing the president's attention on it. >> jeff, i'm going to jump in. it sounds like it's getting under way. this is new cdc director dr. richelle walensky. >> -- extraordinary high and now is the time to remain vigilant. if we continue on the new trajectory, the new forecast predicts that 479,000 to 514,000 covid-19 deaths will be reported by february 20th, 2021. i know this is not news we all want to hear, but this is something we must say so we are all aware. but if we are united in action, we can turn things around. continuing to expand safe, effective vaccination is key to earneding the covid-19 pandemic and bringing our country back to he health. vaccine doses rise to nearly 1.6

million doses over the past week. over 23.5 million doses of covid-19 vaccine have been already administered. this includes 3.4 million people who have already received their second dose. i want to take a moment here to emphasize that the covid-19 vaccines are safe and they work. and this is backed up with data i would like to share with you. last week the cdc released an nmwr on severe adverse events, most notably anaphylaxis of those who received the moderna vaccine as well as the pfizer vaccine. based on the most recent data, we found 2.1 cases of anaphylaxis per million for moderna and 6.2 million cases of anaphylaxis per million for pfizer. let me be clear, these are rare, treatable outcomes and the covid-19 vaccines are safe.

it's also important to put this into context. the risk with getting sick with covid-19 are much higher than the risk of allergy or anaphylaxis from the vaccine. in the u.s., sadly, approximately 16,500 people for every 1 million who are diagnosed with covid will die. while anaphylaxis can be scary, there are effective treatments, and patients generally do quite well. it's also important to note the mild side effects like pain where you got your shot, feeling feverish or tired and muscle aches after getting your shots. these are all normal and expected part of getting a vaccine, especially the second dose. these symptoms mean your immune system is revving up and the vaccine is actually working. cdc have actively monitored for safety signals associated with these vaccines and we are committed to sharing those safety data with you as they've merge also, last week cdc updated guidance to reduce barriers

associated of returning for a second vaccine dose on a specific date or when circumstances change between a first and second dose. there are two important updates that i want to clarify. first, in our updated guidance, the cdc still recommends that people get their second dose as close to the recommended interval as possible. that would be three weeks for the pfizer vaccine and four weeks for the moderna vaccine. however, we also know that life can get in the way and that some of those doses may be missed in the best time window, and in those rare circumstances, the second dose may be given up to six weeks or 42 days after the first. second, the cdc has reiterated that the covid-19 vaccines are not interchangeable. however, it's also true that in extremely rare circumstances people may simply not remember or have documentation of which first dose they received. in these extremely rare

situations, we have said that any available mrna covid-19 vaccine may be administered as the second dose if people are unaware of which first dose they received. that would be at least 28 days after their first. i also know there are concerns about variants. viruses mutate and we have always expected that variants would emerge and we have been looking for them. the variants have been identified recently seem to spread more easily, more transmissible, which can lead to increased number of cases and increased stress on our already-taxed health care system. in the united states 308 cases of b 117 variant that originated from the uk have been confirmed in 26 states, as of january 26th. we also identified this week our first case of the p1 variant in the united states in minnesota. to date, no cases of the b1351

variant first detected in south africa has been identified in the u.s. the cdc is committed to working with international, state and local partners and increasing surveillance to monitor the situation and share as soon as we learn more. the emergence of variants underscores the need for public health action. first, get vaccinated when it's your turn. also, some people may need help getting vaccinated. please consider helping your neighbors and loved ones schedule or travel to their appointments. second, wear a mask, practice social distancing and wash your hands. finally, now is now the time to travel, but if you must, be safe and follow the cdc guidelines. this includes wearing a mask as well as testing and quarantine protocol. please do your part to get cases down by simply taking these actions. thank you. i will now turn it over to dr. fauci who will share some

scientific updates. >> sounds to me like we are having an audio issue with the feed now. i don't know if it's simply that dr. fauci needs to unmute in the era of the zoom world. in this moment we're going to see if this pops back up. sanjay is back with me. sanjay, we all know the trials and tribulations of unmuting when we're on a zoom. let's hope that's part of it. one of the first things that i'm noticing in this briefing -- it looks like the technical glitch has been fixed. let's go back to dr. fauci. >> okay. so, in other words, nobody heard

anything from me. is that correct? okay. well, i said a lot of -- >> -- but also buried in that is targeting the virus itself versus targeting the variant inflammatory responses that often are the sources and the cause of the morbidities and mortalities that we see with this particular disease. first, if you look at the therapeutics for moderate advanced disease, one of those

shown clearly to be efficacious is dexamethazone in people hospitalized who are on ventilators or have high-flow oxygen requirements. it has shown to significantly diminish the 28-day mortality. there have been another group of stewed difficults such as remdesivir which received emergency use authorization. moving over to the left-hand part of the slide, there are a number of interventions that have been used for more early or moderate disease. for example, remdesivir which is a direct antiviral has received fda approval and a variety of monochrome antibodies have also received emergency use authorization as have convalescent plasma. things like anticoagulants are currently in clinical trial. one comment about things like monoclonal antibodies, since they are giving antibody to

someone who would need a direct antiviral effect of the antibody, it is best to use it early before individuals actually have had the opportunity to progress, and that's what we're going to be seeing in the future, is an attempt to, as early as possible, get these interventions to the patients in their particular state, hopefully as outpatients if we can logistically get that done. if we can move on to the next slide, and that is vaccines. as many of you know now, the federal government has been involved either in the development of and/or the facilitation of the testing of a number of vaccines that represent three separate platforms. shown on the slide is what we all know is the extraordinary efficacious and safe results of the moderna and the pfizer-biontech product with 94% to 95% efficacy and a good

safety profile. both having received an eua. what we're looking at closely is others that you see on the slide, janssen, astrazeneca and novavax which are in various states of trial. of particular importance that you'll hear about likely within the first few days to the weeks are the results from the j&j trial. it is a phase three trial with a different platform, a human add know virus vector. it's going to be looking at efficacy, not only in the united states but also in south africa and in brazil. so we will get a good feel from those -- i hope. i believe they will. we'll let the data speak for itself, but what we will see is the relative efficacy against the wild type virus that is predominantly in the united states as well as the south

african isolate which, in fact, is something that we will be able to get a feel for the efficacy there. we'll have some comparative efficacy which will inform us on where we would go if the eventuation occurs that we have that particular lineage that would seed itself in the united states. let me move on to the last slide because that relates to what i said. dr. walensky gave you a good feel for the distribution of the various lynn najs, the 117 in the uk, 351 in south africaa that i just mentioned and the p1 in brazil. she mentioned the increased transmissibility and lethality in the b.1.1.7. the important question that people ask is what is the impact on both monoclonal antibodies and on the vaccine-induced

antibodies related to the vaccines we are currently distributing now. when you look at the 1.1.7, the uk variant, we see a light impact on vaccine-induced antibodies and little impact on anything else. we are covered with that. things get a bit more problematic when you go to the 351 or what we're seeing as the dominant one in south africa. in that regard, there is a moderate diminution, mainly a multifold diminution in the in vitro neutralization by vaccine-induced antibodies. however, and this is an important however, it still is well within the cushion of protection. you can diminish the vaccine-induced antibody efficacy by a few fold and still be well within the protective

range of the vaccine. that's the reason why you've seen announcements that actually the vaccines that we're using are still effective. however, given that as a fact now, we have to be concerned looking forward at what the further evolution of this might be. now, i want to make one mention about the monoclonal antibodies, because they are more seriously inhibited in the sense of impacting on their efficacy by this south african strain. that's the reason why there will be attempts to develop even other antibodies that might be able to avert this particular problem. so looking forward, what we plan to do in collaboration with the companies is to develop what we would call alternative or boosts that would use the same platform, but that would incorporate a particular immunogen that would address

these particular variants. for that reason we would always want to be a step or two ahead of what might be a problem in the future. i'll stop now and hand it over to andy slavitt. >> thank you, dr. fauci. also, thank you dr. walensky. the country is truly lucky to have the two of you leading the charge on both our nation's best scientists and best public health officials. i want to pick up where drs. walensky and fauci left off, public health and science. i'm going to talk about another topic which is execution of the plan to combat the covid crisis, namely the strategy, the progress and the challenges openly and transparently. to begin, i'd like to start with one of the core pillars of our plan, and that is the equitable health care access and outcomes

for all americans. so let me introduce dr. marcella nunez smith who is head of the health equity task force to make some comments on where we stand as a country in the battle to make sure we get every american equitable access to the medical care and the vaccinations that they need. >> great. thank you so much, andy. that's correct. equity is absolutely a foundational component of our national plan. there's a moral imperative. it's simply the right thing to do, to ensure that those who are hardest hit or at highest risk have the opportunity to stay safe and healthy through this pandemic. there's also the science of it. we cannot beat this virus without making sure we're executing a plan that works for all communities. we've committed to taking an equity lens to every aspect of this pandemic response. that includes minimizing the risk of getting infected. and for those who get covid, minimizing the risk of

hospitalization or death. so that includes ensuring access to ppe, testing, treatments and vaccines. it also includes making it possible for people to safely quarantine and isolate and to monitor the impacts of long covid. from what the data show us, we still have a long way to go. latino, indigenous and black people in america are dying at high rates from covid-19. folks in rural communities have case and death rates that continue to climb, and they're dying at higher rates than people in metropolitan area. by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender joe bidenity, disability, geography, based on where you live, covid-19 is leaving a terrible imprint on far too many communities. next slide. so the president took immediate action to combat covid-19 health equities. last thursday, president biden signed an executive order on

ensuring an equitable pandemic response. a key part is through the covid-19 health equity task force. so this task force is responsible for providing specific recommendations to the president through the covid-19 response cord nadir for mitigating the health inequities and preventing these inequities in the future. the force will include individuals with insights into these groups that have been hardest hit. so their role will be advisory in nature, but the president has asked them to make some recommendations on a range of issues. optimally allocating covid-19 resources by agencies and by state, local, tribal and territorial officials, disbursing covid-19 relief funds in a way that advances equity. culturally aligned messaging and outreach to our hardest hit communities and addressing on going health inequities faced by

covid-19 survivors that may merit a public health response. it's going to be essential that we collect data for the hardest hit communities and identify data sources that will enable development of short-term targets for pandemic-related actions and address longer-term data shortfalls and challenges to better prepare and respond to future pandemics. we will be announcing the members of this task force soon. president biden is adamant they hit the ground running now, especially as so many people in our communities are disproportionately hurting from this pandemic. for the last slide, finally it's critical everyone has equitable access to all of the resources necessary to make it through this pandemic, and that includes equitable distribution of covid-19 vaccines to all communities. so all americans, every one in our country, should have the benefit of a safe, effective vaccine that can prevent them from getting sick or dying from covid-19. it takes intention and deliberate action to advance equity in this vaccine

distribution process. we're going to do that through a series of important actions. we're leveraging data sources both from government and other sectors to find and remedy inequities. we're eliminating all out-of-pocket costs for vaccines. your ability to pay shouldn't play a role in your decision whether or not to receive the vaccine. we're removing structural barriers to access in underserved communities. we'll do this by making sure it's convenient and accessible to get to vaccination sites, increasing the workforce for outreach, vaccination and wrap-around service and working to make sure transportation is available. we're going to increase and support core venues of vaccination including federally qualified health centers. it will be important to make sure vaccine is available for everyone. oftentimes that will mean bringing the vaccine right to people. next, we're already talking to

states about their pandemic plans and strategies for equity. we're here to provide technical assistance when needed. but when local health officials are making great progress in equity, we're sharing those great ideas with their peers around the country. finally, we're launching a robust national public education campaign to make sure people know about this vaccine, the facts and not the misinformation. we want people to know the vaccines are safe and effective. we want everyone to be able to make decisions with the best information possible. we're going to make sure the information comes to them in places and ways that are most likely to reach them. it's critical this public education work be very local in nature. critical that we in the federal government support the relationships that already exist between faith and community leaders and their communities. so while there is no single way to do this work, there are best practices that must define our approach and supporting those best practices will be the days and weeks to come. there's so much to do to get

through this pandemic. we want to make sure all communities are cared for and supported along the way. with that, i'm going to turn it back over to you, andy. >> thank you, dr. nunez-smith. it's appropriate that i follow in my report drs. walensky, fauci and nunez-smith, very simply because it's important to send a message to the public that the white house respects and will follow the science and the scientists will speak independently and that our core values of science, public health and equity are going to drive our actions here at the white house. the president launched a national strategy just as he assumed office on the second day, and at the heart of that plan is the most aggressive actions possible to stem the pandemic and follow the science. so dr. walensky spoke about the high levels of spread still in this country, even as they decline. dr. fauci talked about the

threat from the new variants, and dr. nunez-smith spoke about our difficulty and challenges in getting access to vaccines all across the country. given those realities, accelerating the availability and the administration of vaccines are all the more important. so it's been a busy seven days. you've seen us begin to execute our strategy. we set up a team, began working with states and vaccine manufacturers, launched community vaccination centers, taken action to improve supply, revised travel restrictions and more. i know many americans are anxious and eager to get vaccinated. i want you to know we're taking this issue on with incredible urgency and purpose despite not inheriting a fully developed strategy or the infrastructure to make vaccines readily available to americans as quickly as they need to be.

so far this week we've been hitting our target with an average of 1 million vaccinations per day, necessary to meet the president's earlier commitment to administer 100 million shots in 100 days. now, as you heard from the president this week, he is pushing us to view 1 million per day as the floor, not the ceiling. to that end, we are releasing more supply, activating fema and deploying many more personnel. in fact, just this week fema announced they had obligated $1 billion to support state vaccination sites. i want to step back for a moment and put our vaccination plan in some context. to vaccinate every american over the age of 16, we are looking at a total need of well over 500 million doses of vaccines. now, that assumes two shots for

every american 60 and older. i want to pause and say that everything we're talking about today in terms of vaccines reflects the vaccines currently on the market. that is a two-dose regimen. we are not counting on things that are not in existence today. our plan will be to make sure we prepare for as many contingencies as exist. right now i want to level with the public that we're facing two constraining factors. the first is getting enough supply quickly enough, and the second is the ability to administer the vaccines quickly once they're produced and sent out to the sites. we are taking action to increase supply and increase capacity, but even so, it will be months before everyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one. now, let me start with what's happened so far. we've delivered 47 million doses

to states and to long-term care facilities. we have administered about 24 million doses. we've gotten several questions on this. so i want to be clear. as you heard us announce yesterday, any stockpile that may have existed previously no longer exists. our practice is to maintain a rolling inventory of two to three days of supply that we can use to supplement any shortfalls in production and to ensure that we are making deliveries as committed. but we are passing doses directly along to states very much in realtime as they order them. and we are confident that we will receive the supply on a rolling basis from the manufacturers to allow us to continue to do so. we know there are places in the country with not enough vaccines, and at the same time

there are places with vaccines that they're not using yet. this is a natural challenge states are facing, and we will give them more visibility into their forthcoming supply and providing technical assistance that will help them make sure to make quicker use of these doses. i want to emphasize an essential ingredient to increasing the administration of vaccines as passage of the american rescue plan which dedicates needed money for vaccinators and for the administration of vaccines. now let me take you through what we're doing to increase the supply. the president invoked the defense production act last week as a big first step to increase the supply of vaccines. we'll make sure we get six doses out of pfizer's vials everywhere in america, because that's the potential. we're going to do that by acquiring something called low dead space syringes. i'm sure everybody knows what

low dead space syringes are. i now do. yesterday we announced a 16% increase in supply flowing to states every week for the next three weeks to a minimum of 10 million doses per week. that's good news. what's also important about it is it gives states the visibility that they have lacked to know how many vaccines are coming in so they can make commitments to their partners in states and to the citizens and residents of their state so they know when to expect vaccines to arrive. pfizer and moderna are committed to delivering a total of 200 million doses by the end of march with much of it coming at the end of the quarter. so it will accelerate. pfizer yesterday announced they think they can deliver 120 million doeses this quarter. as you heard from the president yesterday, the united states

plans to purchase an additional 200 million doses from moderna and pfizer this year which will be sufficient to vaccinate every american over the age of 16. we expect those doses this summer. this entire thing is an unprecedented undertaking. we will run into unanticipated issues, but our plan and the actions we're taking in the days and weeks ahead is to deliver on these commitments to the public. finally we've also announced we're creating additional paths to get americans vaccinated. these will include standing up what we call community vaccination centers. we are going to launch 100 community vaccination centers this month. we will be also supplying -- we will be supplying vaccines directly to pharmacies. we'll be standing up mobile

clinics to reach hard-to-reach areas, particularly for pursuit of the health equity goals that dr. nunez-smith has outlined. we're going to partner with community health centers to reach hard-hit communities and have infrastructure to deliver vaccines. but again, i want to close with this it's critically important that congress act. the american rescue plan is an important and vital part of getting america vaccinated. it's got bold and ambitious legislation that will help fund the effort that we're outlining today in providing the resources we need to defeat this pandemic. so we need immediate action. with that i'm going to pass it back so we can take some of your questions. >> if folks have the question, you can use the raise hand

feature on your screen and we'll try to get to as many as we can in the sometime we have left. let's start with angalee from yahoo news. you should be unmuted. >> hi there. thank you for taking questions. can you hear me? >> yep, we can. >> great. thanks so much. i wanted to get some clarity about the rollout of these vaccines. it seems like we are getting an increase in vaccinations and administrations. can you clarify what the sudden change was to be able to get to this point? >> andy? andy slavitt, can you hear us? >> yes. i can hear you. >> did you hear the question,

the recent increase, what it was driven by, the minimum of 10 million to states for the next three weeks, how was that achieved? andy? >> thank you, jeff. that's a good question. look, this entire effort is not about just big blast goals, but about day-to-day execution. this is the result of the work of pfizer and moderna, and in this case much of the increase came from our work with moderna. there were planned increases and scrutinizing what's available so we can make a commitment to states. very importantly, we need to add predictability into this process. so i think this is due to the hard work of everybody involved in the process. >> great. let's go to cheryl stoleberg at "the times." >> thank you for doing this call. i appreciate it. i was wondering if you could be

specific about what you will not be able to do if congress does not pass the american rescue plan? and separately, i'm interested in hearing from dr. walensky -- states and localities aren't using about half the vaccine distributed to them? if that data is the wrong picture, what is the accurate picture. >> thank you, cheryl. i'll take the first question and then turn it over to dr. walensky. >> it's essential that congress pass the act. we are dmited to 100 shots in 100 days. that piece of it is not dependent upon congress providing funds, but as we all know, that's just the start. we need congress to provide money for additional vaccination s, sites that provide for more vaccinators. so in order to get all americans vaccinated, we need congress to

provide funds for vaccination. we still do too little testing in this country. we need to ramp up testing significantly. we need congress to fund more testing in order to reopen schools and businesses and take care of people in congregate settings. furthermore, believe it or not, we still have shortages of ppe and other critical materials. we need emergency funds in order to make sure we have those materials. so those are just three of the key areas that need to be funded by congress in order for us to execute on the president's national plan. maybe you can repeat the question for dr. walensky, and i'll hand it over to her. >> yes, the question for dr. walensky is, how accurate is your data showing that states and localities are using only half the vaccine supply? and if that is not the real picture, then what is the accurate picture? >> that's a great question.

we have a database that actually looks at the vaccine supply. i want to reiterate that, you know, not all vaccine that is sort of allocated or delivered or whatnot is available for and into people's arms and where in the pipeline that is varies by the day of the week, whether it's available that singular day. we are working very hard in ensuring we understand exactly where the vaccine is on any given day, and the reporting of the data is actually also behind. we're getting when vaccines are reported rather than when they're administered. much of our work is to make sure we can tighten up the time lines, to understand where in the pipeline the vaccine actually is and when exactly it is administered. >> i want to make two points. one, most states are getting better at putting needles in arms, and the federal government is beginning to support those efforts through all the vehicles

that andy described, in partnership with the states. some of what is -- the states are -- have right now is inventory to do the very, very important second shot. i think it's important when you're looking at states' inventories, you recognize some of that inventory is being held for the very important second shot which we all believe that everyone should follow the fda guidelines, as dr. walensky said earlier. states are getting better. the federal government is ramping up its support. we've got a long way to go and we're very committed to the 100 million shots in the first 100 days. >> great. let's go next to ed o'keefe at cbs news. >> thank you all for doing this. questions about the defense production act and the aspects of how the administration can

maybe hasten the production of vaccine and related products. regarding these new doses from moderna and pfizer that you announced yesterday, have those two companies specifically told you when these extra 100 million doses will be available? some administration officials said yesterday over the course of the summer, moderna said third quarter of 2021. that's a broad range. i'm curious if you can sort of narrow that down. why isn't it being used yet, the bpa to convince other companies or other pharmaceuticals to help make already-approved vaccines? >> let's take it a question at a time. andy, why don't you start with the dpa and touch on the likely delivery of the additional 200 million doses. >> great. thanks for the question. the defense production act is a very important vehicle for us. we have an entire team that's focused on how to maximize and speed supply.

now, in its first instance, getting the syringes and all of the other ancillary capabilities necessary to get americans their vaccines is one of the core areas, we identified 12 areas where the president has authorized us to use the defense production act including masks, including more testing, including making spaces. to the very specific question of whether or not a factory can be retrofitted to mass produce another vaccine, that's something under active exploration. as youd can imagine, it's not as simple as walking in and flipping a switch. these are delicate processes, very sterile processes and have to be done in a way that actually completely works. we will not be afraid to explore every option to get more vaccines to the public as quickly as possible. as for the timing of the moderna and pfizer contracts, i think -- it is no secret that it is our goal to accelerate that as much

as possible. to the extent that we run into those physical limitations, we have to make sure that the vaccines that are produced are done the right way so we can sign off and get them to the states and get them to the public. so right now, that looks like some time over the summer. >> hypothetically then, what you're saying, you're exploring the possibility -- just hypothetically -- potentially having one like merck produce the moderna vaccine by using the dpa to do that? >> well, i don't want to talk about specific names, per se. but i will say that we are exploring every possible option. we do not believe in an emergency crisis situation that we're in, that it is responsible to just pick one path and pin our hopes on that. obviously there are other vaccine manufacturers that are supp mitting emergency use authorization applications.

there are other manufacturers that are not pursuing their own vaccine. and for all of those, we will be looking at ways to accelerate. when we make a commitment to the public, we don't want to make a commitment to the we want to make our commitment based on the things that we know today. that's why we're talking about through the course of the summer, we'll do everything in our power, of course, to accelerate that. >> yeah, just to summarize it. this is a national emergency. 400,000 people have died. everything is on the table across the whole supply chain. from the syringes to the pharmaceutical companies. anything we can do to increase the vaccine supply in the timing of the delivery is on the table and we will execute accordingly. >> great. let's go to kristen welker at nbc news. >> thank you so much.

a couple questions, just to follow up, i just want to be clear, has the president actually signed the dpa. can you speak to the time line, you raised the issue of summer. just so we're clear on expectations by the end of summer, president biden's advisers said he was confident by the end of summer, 300 million would be vaccinated. is that still your expectation? and then you can speak to some of the concerns we've heard from governors who have cheered this announcement, saying they welcome more supplies and welcome more vaccines but in the words of larry hogan, quote, we're going to need much more supply. are you able to meet what the governors are asking for? not just increasing it in the first month, but continue to meet what they're asking for? >> so, thank you for the question. let me speak to that. first of saul, i think it's important to clarify the difference between 300 million -- or 600 million

vaccines being produced and the process of getting that across the country to providers and pharmacies and community clinics and into people's arms. there are many more challenges. so, what we talked about yesterday, what the president announced was a first step mainly to make sure we have enough production. making sure that 300 million people get vaccinated has a lot of other elements including community conversations to discuss people's concerns about vaccine as we get into the summer. including making sure, to our earlier points, we are getting every community access to vaccinations. so there is a huge process which we're undertaking to do this. so, i don't want you to hear that just because they are -- will be manufactured and produced by a certain date, that is the same thing as taking every step necessary to get them to the public. as for governor hogan's comments about wanting more vaccines, we

hear you, governor hogan, and we couldn't agree more. i would love to tell you that we inherited a situation where there were stockpiles and stockpiles of vaccines sitting there. that is not the case. and it is our job to level both with the governors and with the public. having said that, what we have been been able to do is make a commitment to increase by 16% the amount of vaccines going out. and to provide three weeks of visibility, which will rallow them to plan better. we hope to do our best to increase and accelerate more vaccines as we see them. >> great. let's go to aneesh elsandor, cbs. >> thank you for taking my questions. can you tell me how many vacate nations are currently available and in the stockpile? are we dealing with a finite

number of vaccinations. i was wondering if you could talk to the numbers again? the second question, what percentage of vaccinations, people who are vaccinated coming back with racial and ethnicity information? because i'm wondering how you're gauging the success of people getting the vaccination? >> andy, why don't you take the first question. >> today we're delivering 40 million and committed to delivering an additional 10 million addition to states. now, we do not keep a stockpile of a large number of vaccines. we keep a two to three-day supply, as a practice, just to account for variation in manufacturing production. that's it. the rest moves out to states. >> so, that's very --

>> i think part of it decision here is there was a practice early on before we were in office of having a stockpile. the president-elect -- two to three days as andy said of supplies to deal with any unforeseen situations. dr. nunez-smith. >> great, thank you, and thank you for that question. so we're 100% committed to making sure that when it's your turn, that you have access to the vaccine. and we know that access in many communities that have been hard hit might be a challenge. you know, to your specific question around race ethnicity data, you know, we are making a call to get better -- more consistent data, particularly around some of these demographic points. now, we see right now around 16

states or so that are releasing race ethnicity data. but it's true that those data are incomplete. but it's not our only, you know, sort of visibility into what's happening. the cdc, for example, has a metric around social vulnerability. many states are using that now. we're encouraging the use of ethics around that for map planning. we can think of neighborhoods and communities as ways of metrics as a way of tracking. right now, we rely on government sources as well as data sources external to government. >> and as a follow-up, how soon do you think the plan to roll out vaccines to communities of color will have real impact? i know you talked about summer and other months, throughout the nation as a whole. i wonder if there are any estimates for communities of color and vulnerable popu populations? >> absolutely. so, you know that work is

happening right now. in states and localities, you know, depending on what's on the ground as far as prioritization. but in those communities that have been hard hit, i say kudos to all of the local health officials who are making those pushes to get to those over 75 who are in affordable housing communities. who are bringing vaccine to people, you know, in homeless shelters. again, who meet the criteria for the prioritization. i think that's the key. when we say everyone over a specific age is eligible, we'll have to take an extra step to get to those who are hardest to reach. and that work is already happening now. >> thank you. >> we're coming up on the top of the hour, we have time for one more. alice park at "time." >> hello, thank you so much for taking my question. so this is more for the scientists, not dr. fauci and dr. walensky. it seems that the mutations

inside ofco v 2 and seeing which ones are going to affect outcomes and ultimate vaccine immunity. are there plans to expand on current sequencinging on national level? like provide states with additional funding for collecting samples, collecting the sequence themselves? or how high of a priority is this to have a more national sequencing for surveillance purposes? >> dr. walensky. >> thank you, yes. we are actively working only this, these are data and samples collected in the states, as well as academic and other collaborations. we'll highlight again the money in the american recovery act to move this forward. and we do have access to those resources to do the amount of sequencing surveillance in order to be able to detect these when

they first start to emerge. >> believe it or not, we are 43rd in the world at g nomic sequencing. so it's part of the plan. -- to spot the difference -- getting signal that i'm going in and out. you can hear me now? back up for a second. 43rd in the world in sequencing. totally unacceptable. as part of the american rescue plan, we remedy that situation and do the appropriate analysis on the sequencing which will allow us to spot variants early which say good way to deal with any potential variants.

dr. fauci. >> yeah, one other thing that i think people need to understand, as we all know, rna viruses mutate all the time. that's what they do. that's their business. and there are very few, but they do happen. that is that you get one that has a functional relevancy tool. the way we've seen with graded transmissibility. possibility of greater virulence. but also importantly for us what i mentioned in my opening comments is what is the relationship between the mutant and the induction of antibodies by the vaccines that we do. so, supplementing what dr. walensky said, that together with the cdc's expansion in getting more realtime sequence gee nomic surveillance, the nih will be collaborating with the cdc in looking at what the functional characteristics of these are. for